a review of gmail

well i was told to try out gmail, google's e mail service, so i have.

okay, first the pros:

using gmail means your email data sits on a google server someplace. while i was first a little skeptical of this, having that extra storage in cyber space is a cool thing-- assuming they never crash. I occassionally use it as critical backup for smaller files. they offer a couple of gigabytes to start. after 3 months i have used up 4% of the space.

having all your e mail on a remote server, both sent and received, means you can access it all, including attached files, even if your computer drive dies or if you're on someone else's computer. and here's the real bonus-- you can google your own email to find any old messages, info, names, pictures, attachments, etc., that you have sent months ago. the ability to search all of your e mail messages with google search is the strongest element of the service. it's great for finding phonenyumbers in an e mail form 3 months ago.

it also has a spam filter that so far has has trapped all incoming spam quite magnificently while only grabbing one bulk mailing from a friend. another truly fabfeature. on those two alone it's worth getting.

okay, the cons:
The address book leaves a lot to be desired, it's very clunky compared to eudora, which is much more agile. eudora will take any name you click on and immeditely put it in the "to" field where in gmail, if you have multiple addressees, you have to check the box next to their names, then click compose . . . and hope they all migrate in there. there is a shortcut address feature, if you type a letter in the to field all the addresses that start with that letter appear under it to choose from, but you can only pick one at a time, again, clunky compared to eudora. also they do have a list of most recently mailed names on the left side which is helpful for small circles of friends, not much use to me.

one feature that is sometimes problematic: in big mailings that get you lots of respopnses form different people with the same subject line, sometimes some messages get slightly lost in that thread . . . you may not notice the second of 2 messages if they arrive the same time. you can explode views of threads tho, making it easier to look thru converations.

oh, other features include google chat, so you can chat with other gmail users.

all in all, i am getting used to the clunky address book, and the spam filter and the search capability make up for anything i could complain about.